At Ivy League Championship, Sixth Place Finish

Sam Bernstein. (photo by David Silverman, DSPics.com)

Apr 29, 2012

Difficult Tournament to Close Out Year

GALLOWAY, N.J. — It was a tough end to the season for the Yale men's golf team, which finished the Apr. 27-29 Ivy League Championships in sixth place, with an overall team score of +88 over the three days of competition at the Galloway National Golf Course in Galloway, N.J.

The Bulldogs finished 33 strokes behind the two teams that tied with each other at the top of the leaderboard: Dartmouth and Penn finished with an overall score of +65, just three strokes ahead of third-place Columbia.

By the end of play on Sunday, the Elis were unable to pull off a similar result to their performance at the Ivy League Championship last year. Then, they took home the trophy after winning by a substantial 20-stroke margin, earning an automatic bid into that year's NCAA National Championship field in the process.

Still, the Yale team had some strong performances throughout the three-day tournament. Sophomore Sam Bernstein was the standout performer, charging up the leaderboard on the final day to end in outright third spot with a +11 score. That was a tremendous effort given Bernstein had ended the second day's play in a tie for 11th place.

Bernstein's efforts will be rewarded with a place in the first-team All-Ivy.

Freshman William Davenport also performed well at his first Ivy League Championships. He notched up +26 overall to finish in a tie for 22nd place. Not far behind Davenport were juniors Bradley Kushner and Russell Holmes, who finished in 24th place and tie for 25th place, respectively.

With the sixth-place finish, the Elis' season comes to the close. It was certainly not without highlights: they tasted victory at the Princeton Invitational and Macdonald Cup, and registered several other top-five finishes throughout the season.